The Interrogation- Round Two
by AliasCWN
Summary: Hitch and Tully are having fun with their captor.


**This one is for Sgt Saunders. The first story just wrote itself. I wrote the first few sentences and it just took off from there. I hope you enjoy this one as much. It took just a little more effort. I want to thank everyone for their reviews.**

 **The Interrogation- Round two**

 **By AliasCWN**

After their first round of interrogation with Captain Ginter Hitch and Tully had been returned to their cell. Tully had taken a nap and Hitch, tired of staring out the window, had decided to get some rest too. He had only been asleep a short time when they were awakened by the guards outside their door.

"Sounds like round two." Tully whispered as he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Hitch grinned in response and stood to face the door.

Again they were herded to the office with the large desk. Captain Ginter sat at the desk holding a report in his hands. He motioned the prisoners to the chairs they had occupied during the earlier session.

"Good to see you again Captain. Are you feeling better?" Hitch started talking as soon as he was seated. He smiled brightly at the officer who faced them with a stone face. "Did you think of some more questions I could help you answer?" He let the eagerness in his voice increase the rate the words tumbled out.

"I have a report here." Ginter looked down at the papers in his hands. "They suggest that you two may be 'rats'. "

Hitch and Tully exchanged concerned glances. They turned blank stares on the captain and waited for the other shoe to drop.

"Desert vermin." The officer spat angrily.

"You know about that?" Hitch ask quietly.

"Yes. You should have informed me."

The prisoners hung their heads.

"We would have told you." The blond blurted out earnestly. "We didn't want to complain."

"Complain? I don't understand."

"Well." Hitchcock hurried to explain. "You've been good to us. You gave us that nice cell with those clean blankets. We didn't want to complain about the rats. The rest of your base is so neat and all. But since you ask….I saw a rat sleeping on one of the cots. It was huge! Big enough to carry a man, really, I'm not exaggerating! I didn't want to wake it cause they can get cranky when you disturb one. But since you already know about them. There was more than one in there. And they don't like being in cages. They get cranky about that too. They're not there now or I would show you. I"ve only seen a few that big in my whole life!" Hitch leaned forward in his chair to continue his explanation. "Once, when we were camping in the desert, I was all rolled up in my blankets and Sarge saw one in my bed. I'm glad he didn't shoot it cause he might have hit me. That one was pretty big too." He spread his hands wide to indicate the size of the supposed rat.

"I don't want to talk about rats." Ginter shook his head in disgust.

"Then why did you bring it up? I really don't understand you sometimes. I mean I understand you but I don't know what you mean. Do you mean what you said or do you mean something else? " The blond sadly shook his head. "You did ask. Or don't you remember? Wait, were you actually asking about rats or telling us about them? You knew about them, right? Did you just want to know if we noticed them? Cause we did."

"Forget the rats!"

"That's easy for you to say, they aren't sleeping in your bed." Tully mumbled for the captain to hear.

The German's face turned red as he struggled valiantly for control.

"We are going to try this again."

Both prisoners watched him in silence.

"I said that we are going to try this again." He repeated more forcefully.

"I don't know if I want to talk to you anymore." Hitch mumbled miserably. "I try hard to answer your questions and you keep getting mad at me." He frowned at the officer and slumped into his seat. "Try to be a nice guy and he gets all mean and nasty." Hitch looked at Tully for confirmation. "I tried to answer his questions. Didn't I Tully?"

Tully nodded solemnly. "You sure did. Answered them pretty darn good too if you ask me." Tully gave the officer a disapproving glare.

"You will answer my questions!" The German demanded. He threw his shoulders back and straightened to his full height.

"You aren't going to impress me with that 'looking like your Furor' thing you do" Hitch straightened in his seat and looked the captain in the eye. "You were mean to me. I think you owe me an apology."

"No!" A flash of anger crossed the German's features.

"Then I'm not going to talk to you. I don't have to talk to mean people." The blond crossed his arms and thrust out his chest defiantly. "You'll have to ask someone else for your answers. If they have the answers. Maybe they will even know what it is you want to know if you know what you want to know. That's if you even know what it is you want to know. And if you know what you want to know then why do you ask the question in the first place?"

Captain Ginter studied the prisoner's posture, trying to decide how to proceed. Their cooperation would make things much easier. The blond was no longer looking at him and the second prisoner was giving him the evil eye.

"He won't talk to you unless you apologize." The quiet prisoner informed him seriously. "Once he gets something in his head he can be stubborn as an old mule. Not that a mule can really talk to you."

"Sure they can Tully." The talkative one twisted in his seat to face his fellow prisoner. "Didn't your Pa's mule ever talk to you?" He started talking faster, trying to convince his friend that mules could talk. "Don't tell me you never heard it talk. They go hee-haw, hee-haw. That's talking only not in our language. That's like the captain here. He don't talk our language real good either but he can talk it. Maybe you could teach a mule to speak our lingo." Here Hitchcock paused as if in thought. "Well, maybe not. Maybe you ought to try it sometime."

"Enough!"

"There you go again. Getting all mean and yelling."

"We are not talking about mules!" The German shouted. He called his guards to stand next to Hitchcock.

"Well I was. I don't recall you talking about much of anything." Hitch protested. "Just like the last time. You want us to answer questions that you haven't even ask. That's cause you don't know what you want to know. If you knew that maybe we would know what you wanted to know. How are we supposed to know what you don't know you want to know?" He took a quick peek at the guards expecting to have to duck a blow. "How about telling these fellows to back off? They're going to hurt somebody and I don't want to be around when that happens" He hunched his shoulders and shrunk away. "Now about those mules."

"We weren't taking about mules!" The officer repeated with a groan.

"Yes we were. Weren't you listening to anything we've been saying? How do you expect to get answers if you don't listen?" Hitchcock stared at the officer with wide eyes, waiting for an answer.

Ginter dropped his head and sighed. Several of the guards shifted their positions and he threw them a warning glare. They carefully kept their expressions neutral as they watched the interrogation.

"Alright. Where were we?" Ginter voiced the question to no one in particular.

"Talking about mules."

"No!"

"But that's what we were talking about. You ask what we were talking about. If you didn't want to know then why did you ask?"

"Stop!"

"Okay. But you did ask. Didn't he Tully?'

"Yep. He sure did." The Kentuckian agreed fearlessly.

"And Tully started it." Hitch was quick to point out. "He's the one who mentioned mules first. He said they couldn't talk." He looked at Tully in disbelief. "I just said they could, only not in English like we can. I was…."

"Stop!"

"Well you ask." The blond grumbled and dropped his head, trying not to let his expression give him away.

"What unit are you with?"

"We're with yours. See, we're right here. Anyone can see that." Hitch looked at the guards standing around the room. "But I can't rightly tell you what unit they are for sure. Don't you know?"

"Of course I know. I didn't mean my unit."

"But there's nobody else here." Hitch protested. "How can we be with somebody else if we're the only ones here?"

"The American army." Ginter sputtered. "What unit with the American army?"

Hitchcock made a big show of looking around the room again. "The American army isn't here Captain. Just your guys and Tully and me. Two guys can't make an army. We can't count your guys cause they aren't Americans. At least I don't think so. Are they? Americans I mean."

"No Private. They are not Americans. They are German like me." The Captain spoke slowly as if talking to a small child.

There, you see, no American army. Just us." Hitch explained confidently. "Your guys and us. No one else. Does that answer your question?"

"I think he knows his guys aren't like us Hitch. They don't wear the same uniforms or anything." Tully added helpfully.

"Well that's what I was trying to tell him." The blond replied. He leaned closer to Tully before adding, "I think he has trouble understanding us." The last was added in a stage whisper.

"What American unit are you with?"

"Here we go again Tully. I told you I don't think he understands me."

The captain rolled his eyes and leaned down to yell in the blond's face.

"Tell me!"

"Tell you what?" Hitch whined.

"You are in the American army are you not?"

"Well sure. I joined up all by myself. You see, I went down to the recruiting office in town and they let me talk to a real soldier. He said I could join up if I passed a test. I guess I passed because he told me to sign my name. I write real good I"ll tell you. Anyway, I was all ready to sign when he told me I scored high enough to be cannon fodder. Well, I"ll tell you.." he added indignantly. "I just told him right there I wasn't signing if they were going to shoot me out of some cannon. I wanted to wear a real uniform, not that fancy colored thing they wear to get shot out of a cannon. I saw them at a circus once. Too bright for me. Would have made me a darn fine target for the enemy to shoot at. And I didn't like the idea of being shot out of one of those things anyway. No siree, net or no net. With my luck they would miss or the darn thing would have a hole in it. That's not for me. I only signed after he promised I wouldn't have to crawl into any old cannon. Good thing too. All the cannons I"ve seen so far, they had these little itty bitty barrels. I would have got stuck. I bet I couldn't get one leg in there let alone my whole body. Fine thing." The blond stopped to catch his breath and guage the German's reaction. "They didn't try to shoot you out of one of those things did they captain?"

"Never mind Private. Never mind."

"Oh, I don't mind. You sure are getting all worked up again Captain. Are you feeling alright? We don't want you to have a stroke or anything. Your face is getting all red. Maybe I should get you some water or something. I"d be glad to do it." Hitch started to rise from his chair. A guard put a hand on his shoulder and roughly pushed him back down. "He's not going to hit me again is he? Cause I'm not going to talk anymore if he's going to hit me. That's not a nice thing to do." Hitch complained.

"He won't hit you. I just want you to answer my questions." Ginter made a valiant attempt to keep his responses sounding reasonable and friendly.

"What questions?"

"Where are your friends?"

"Which friends? I"ve got lots of friends. Ask Tully. I'm a real friendly fellow. Heck, ask anyone. Everybody likes me." With a flourish he threw his hands out to show how many friends he had. His broad smile invited the guards to join his fan club. They watched him warily as he waved his hands around. "Which ones are you trying to find?" He hesitated and turned his smile into a frown. "I didn't know any of them were lost. What happened? Are they okay?" Pretending alarm, he turned to Tully. "We better go look for them. Is that alright with you Captain? If my friends are lost we should go help look for them."

"They are not lost."

"Then why do we have to go look for them?"

"You don"t. I just want to know where they are."

"Why? Are they in trouble?" Hitch looked at Tully again. Tully shrugged in answer to his question.

"I want to know where your sargent is."

"I don't know."

"Where did you see him last?"

"Oh, he left us at that spot where your guys caught us."

"Now we are getting somewhere."

"Where?"

"Where what?"

"Where are we going? Are we going to look for my friends? It sure is nice of you to take time out to help find them."

The officer glared at Hitch before schooling his expression.

"We are not going to look for your friends. They are fine. I want to know where your sargent went."

"Is he lost?"

"No. I just want to know where he went." Ginter explained slowly.

His prisoner shrugged as if it didn't matter. "That makes two of us. Sarge didn't say where he was going. Anyway. He's probably not there anymore. It's been a while, he's most likely moved by now."

"Moved to where?"

"To where he went. Where else would he go? No sense going back to where he was . He just left there. Might just as well stay put if you're only going to go back to where you were. He probably went to where he is. That makes a whole lot more sense than going around in circles. He'd never get anywhere that way."

"But where is he?"

"Right where he went. Weren't you listening again? You must be getting tired, you keep losing your train of thought. And before you ask, I don't know where he went or where he is…. You aren't very good at this are you?"

Sigh. "Good at what Private?"

"This question thing. You finally figured out how to ask questions but you aren't listening to the answers. Sarge wouldn't like that."

"Your sargent doesn't like me asking you questions?"

"Sarge doesn't know you're asking me questions." The prisoner stated matter-of-factly.

"Then what's the problem?"

"What problem?"

"The problem with me asking you questions?"

"I didn't say there was a problem. You're putting words in my mouth. You're not trying to get me in trouble are you?" Hitch challenged suspiciously. "Cause Sarge says I can do that just fine on my own."

"Do what on your own?"

"Get into trouble. There was this one time when I put blue dye in the shower water so when the fellas took a shower they turned all blue." Hitch started to laugh at the memory. Tully joined in and they chuckled at the very real prank. Hitch noticed that the captain didn't seem in the least amused.

"Can we get back to the questions?" Pacing in front of the prisoners, Ginter tried to think of a way to phrase the next question. The laughter of the Americans was grating on his last nerve.

"Why are you here?"

Hitch and Tully exchanged looks that clearly stated to anyone watching that they thought the answer was evident. Hitch shook his head slowly, pondering how to explain it.

"Well Captain, that's as clear as the nose on your face." He looked at the German with pity. "I thought you knew."

"Private," the German admitted, " at this point, I'm not sure I know anything. Explain it to me."

"Your guards Captain. They brought us here. I think they may have really shot us if we had refused to come. Not that we would, mind you. I like talking to you Captain. I like helping you out, answering your questions and all. Sarge tells me all the time that I'm not much help. He says I talk too much sometimes. Answering your questions makes me feel like I'm really helping. Don't you agree? I"ll help you some more if you want. Ask me another question. Don't make it so easy this time. I can answer the hard questions too. Can't I Tully?" He looked to his partner for agreement. Tully nodded his head solemnly. "You just ask and I"ll answer." He continued earnestly. "Maybe I could tell you some more stories about some of the times I got into trouble. There are lots of them. Sarge doesn't like me to talk about them but I can tell you."

The German was shaking his head. "Come on. Ask me about them. I got a million stories I can tell you. Well maybe not that many but a whole bunch." Hitch pleaded. "Tully can tell you. He was there when Sarge chewed me out."

"Maybe later Private, I have much work to do now. We can talk again later." The officer sounded tired. He ordered the guards to remove the prisoners.

Tully grinned as he left the room because he was sure he heard the officer mutter something to himself. It sounded a lot like he said, 'much later'. "


End file.
